page_title: Shkodër County
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Shkodër County / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: Lake Skadar // Liqeni i Shkodrës // Skutarisee
context_page_description: Shkodër County is a county in northwestern Albania, with the capital in Shkodër. The county spans 3,562 square kilometres and had a total population of 200,007 people as of 2020. The county borders on the counties of Lezhë, Kukës and the country of Montenegro. The county consists of five municipalities, including Fushë-Arrëz, Malësi e Madhe, Pukë, Shkodër and Vau i Dejës.
  During the Bronze Age, the area was inhabited by various Illyrian tribes such as the Ardiaeis and Labeataes. Illyria was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming an integral part of the Roman Empire and its successor the Byzantine Empire. Falling under Venetian and Ottoman dominion in the late Middle Ages, the modern nation state of Albania emerged in 1912 following its independence.
  The climate of the county is profoundly affected by the Adriatic Sea in the west and the Albanian Alps in the north. It experiences mostly mediterranean climate, while the north enjoys continental climate. The summers are predominantly hot and dry, the winters relatively mild, and falls and springs mainly unstable, both in terms of precipitation and temperatures.
context_section_description: Shkodër is one of 12 counties of Albania, located in the west of the Northern Region. It lies between latitudes 42° N, and longitudes 20° E. The county area is 3,562 km² (1,375 sq mi) and the second largest county by area in Albania and the largest in the Northern Region. It is limited to the counties of Kukës to the northeast and east, Lezhë to the southeast and south, the country of Montenegro in the north and the Adriatic Sea in the southwest.
  The county has a wide variety of topographical sets and natural landscapes. The Albanian Alps, which extends in the north of the county toward Montenegro, is a primarily mountainous region with a high terrain. The alps delineated several sedimentary basins such as the Mbishkodra basin in the center. The highest point in the county is Maja Jezercë at 2,694 m (8,839 ft) above the Adriatic in the northeast shared with Kukës County. The lowest spot is 0 m (0 ft) above the Adriatic, located in the southwest of the county.
  Due to the considerable variation in altitude, it makes for a wide range of climate types. The Adriatic Sea in the west and Albanian Alps in the north have a great influence to the climate of the county. Most of the county has a usually rainy and hot mediterranean climate as defined by the Köppen climate classification. Mean monthly temperature ranges between −2 °C (28 °F) in January and 25 °C (77 °F) in August. The mean annual precipitation ranges between 1,800 millimetres (71 inches) and 300 millimetres (12 inches) depending on longitude and latitude and prevailing climate type.
caption: A panoramic view over the Lake Shkodër and the Albanian Alps in the distance.
exif: {"Image Software": "Picasa", "Image DateTime": "2014:11:05 21:06:50", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image ExifOffset": "96", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "364", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2615", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:11:05 21:05:32", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "11068", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3397", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "11068", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "3397", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "228", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "4932528feeb68de95f0bd70271d57f15"}